After the 7-Inch Apad RK2808 was an obvious success, even if it was not very snappy, Utopia tries to upgrade their product line with the Apad iMX515. The Freescale plattform they have chosen seems to be pretty well performing (see videos at bottom of this post). RAM should be just enough. Regarding a possible price of 230$ there is not much to carp. Of course, they could integrate a capacitive multitouch screen with a better resolution, they could have more sensors, they could have a SIM slot for 3G connections, they could have a high-res webcam and many more features, but that would make the device much more expensive. The Apad iMX515 is cheap, but it’s processing power should be OK. It could be used as a home device.

I am still looking for more information about these missing features. Maybe there will be optional features in future, like a webcam (there is reserved space for that), 3G and a capacitive touchscreen. I’ll keep you updated…

Let’s see some videos of the Apad iMX515. How Flash 10.1 performs:

Showing specifications and Froyo 2.2:

Apad 3D Gaming:

Playing Angry Birds (one of my favorite games on the phone):

Attention: Be careful, if you like to buy such a device. There are and there will be a lot of very similar looking devices with different hardware, all coming more or less directly from China. Know what you want and what is sold. If you order one of these devices somewhere, check if you really got what you have paid for. Check processor, RAM and ROM capacity right after opening the box. And the most important: Only order from good sources, if possible through an escrow payment.

Update: This particular tablet being reviewed is LOW COST in more ways than the final retail price, therefore the touch panel isn’t the best and the firmware available on other RK2808 players maybe better developed and optimized, so please don’t pass judgment on the RK2808 just based on what you see in this review. This is a generic tablet and like most generics, their performance is usually not as good as a branded version that you could get. This is the first widely available Rockchip RK2808 based tablet that runs Android 1.5. The OS has been customized and optimized to run on this tablet. This particular tablet comes in many different brand names and is common eBay, but they are all the same. Overall the RK2808 can handle android, its not the best and it will certainly not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it does allow for a very low cost and usable tablet.